Christmas at the Burrow
by boshrocks
Summary: Hermione is spending the holidays with the Weasleys but because there are too many people in the house she has to room with Harry and Ron. They better not try anything. read adn review please
1. Chapter 1

There was an air of general merriment in the hall. People were ready to go home for the holidays. Christmas was fast approaching and it was the last week of school and everyone was happy.

All except Hermione. She was supposed to go skiing with her parents again this year, but they'd forgotten to send her a ticket or to find a way to get her to the airport. She sat on the staircase and watched as all her friends made their plans to go away. She would stay at school. Normally she wouldn't have minded, but Harry and Ron were going to the Burrow for Bill and Fleur's homecoming after their honeymoon in Africa. They all thought she was going to the Alps and so they hadn't bothered to invite her.

She realised she would be spending a very lonely Christmas here at Hogwarts listening to the taunts of Draco Malfoy who was also staying for some reason. With this bleak outlook on her Christmas holidays, Hermione sighed as she watched the bubbling students around her.

"Penny for your thoughts?" a friendly voice said behind her. Turning she saw Harry. He leant against the banisters casually and she couldn't help noting how sexily relaxed he was. But, then again, she thought everything he did was sexy. He was just a sexy person, in general. And he didn't even know it. Bloody hormones.

"You don't wanna know." She looked at her knees.

"Yes I do Hermione. If you can't tell me than who can you tell? Unless of course it's women's troubles, in which case I will be forced to send for Ginny."

"It's just that, my parents aren't taking me skiing this year and I can't exactly invite myself over to the Weasley's." she sighed again.

"Sure you can! They love having you over. You'll be able to keep Ginny company in the midst of all those horrid boys." Harry's eyes twinkled which meant that he counted himself as one of the beastly boys. He smiled his most charming smile and this made himself even more handsome than he already was.

"I don't know." She said doubtfully.

"Wow, this must be a first. The Great Hermione Granger doesn't know something." Ron sat on the end of the banisters cheerfully. "So come on then, what aren't you sure about?"

Harry whispered what the problem was.

"Is that all!?" Ron cried. "Come and stay with us! We'll have such fun, we always do. And it won't feel like Christmas if you aren't there telling us off for something or other."

Hermione laughed in spite of herself. "But there'll be too many people."

"Nonsense! The more the merrier." Ron said genially.

"The Burrow can't hold all of us."

"Course it can! It's a full house anyway, one more person won't make the roof fall off!"

"I'd prefer to be properly invited." She protested.

"I invited you, just now! You need another one?" Ron grabbed Ginny as she passed with her best friend Luna Lovegood. "Gin, invite Hermione over for the holidays." He ordered.

"Um, come stay with us this holiday?" she said doubtfully making Harry and Luna laugh and Hermione and Ron try not to.

"Alright I'll come. It's much better than staying here and listening to Malfoy brag about his presents and sneer at me. He's got worse as well."

"What's he done this time?" Luna said.

"You'll all freak."

"It can't have been that bad." Harry said, thinking it probably was.

"It's worse. He… asked me out."

"WHAT???!!!!" the other four shouted together. Everyone in the hall stopped what they were doing and stared at them.

"Please tell me you said no!" Ginny begged looking disgusted and enraged at the same time.

Hermione snorted. "You actually think I'd say yes? Of course I said no."

Her friends were all looking extremely miffed and then the double doors opened and Malfoy himself came in. The four turned and glared at him so fiercely that he paled a little.

"Okay, what did I do?" Malfoy swallowed audibly.

"If I were you I'd run." Hermione said into the silence as the four charged up their rage waiting to hex him. Malfoy nodded and ran for it.

Hermione laughed at him and the sound seemed to calm the others. "So, how many people will there be this holiday?"

"Let's see, Charlie will only be there for a little bit. Bill and Fleur will be there throughout. Fred and George should be there if they haven't blown themselves up yet."

"I'm staying for most of it. Dad wants to go searching for the Crumple Horned Snorkack again and I'm beginning to doubt whether it exists. He's going alone and I'm coming to you a few days after the hols start." Luna said sitting beside Hermione.

Ron was busy doing some people counting on his fingers. "Ten for all of it, and twelve for most of it. I think."

"Yes Ron that is right." His sister told him patiently. "Hang on I think you might have to stay in Ron's room. Lune'll stay in mine, but I don't think I have room for you as well in that room. It's pretty tiny."

"Share with the boys?" Hermione glanced at Harry and Ron, who looked a little more cheerful about the prospect. "Well, alright. But we have to maintain some sort of ground rules."

"Okay."

"Firstly, you try anything sexual and I punish you in the medieval way. You lose the hand that touched me. Secondly, I need privacy. I'm a girl, even though I took you four years to notice Ron, and any peeking at me while I'm changing and you will regret you even live. Voldy-shorts has nothing on me when I'm very angry and trust me, taking advantage of me will not be tolerated. Is that clear?"

"Yes, ma'am." The boys chorused meekly.

"Good. Glad that's understood."

When they arrived at the Burrow they were greeted by the rest of the Weasley clan all of whom were wearing red to match their hair. Mrs Weasley kissed them all round making the boys get very embarrassed.

"Hermione, it's lovely to see you. I got Ron's letter and you will have to stay in his room, I'm afraid. We're full for this holiday. Not that it matters. I'm sure they'll be perfect gentlemen, right boys?" she looked pointedly at her youngest son and his best friend.

They blushed and nodded quickly, before rushing to get their trunks up to Ron's room. Hermione laughed and levitated her trunk up the stairs. Outside the room she paused eavesdropping on their conversation.

"This sucks, man! She's not gonna let us do anything. Stupid rules!" she heard Ron say sounding very annoyed.

"Yeah, she gave us rules, but we never obey rules, why should we start now?"

"Oh Harry you are in so much trouble!" Hermione whispered.

"You gonna try something then?"

"I'm taking this opportunity. We might not get another one for, like, ever. I'm gonna find out what she really thinks."

"About you, you mean?"

"Of course Ron. And you, and Malfoy. I'll find out who she fancies, just you watch."

"Yeah, like that's gonna happen." Hermione said as she came in the room. She set her trunk on the floor beside the spare camp bed that was separate from the other beds. Opening it she took out a book and then her diary and quill and ink. And set her pyjamas on the pillow neatly.

"How much did you hear?" Ron asked carefully.

"Enough. Come on, we better head down. Fred and George said they had a surprise for us. I dread to think what it is." She walked out of the room smiling.

"Do you understand girls?"

"Nope." Ron replied happily. "And I don't think I'm ever going to. That's the way they want it to be."

"Not for long."


	2. Chapter 2

Hermione settled into the routine of life in the Burrow fairly naturally. After Hogwarts she thought of the Burrow as her third home. She was very pleased to see that Percy was still being an ass and wasn't coming home and she remarked this to Ginny as they washed up the breakfast things to give Mrs Weasley a break. They always did this and she loved them all the more for their thoughtfulness.

"Lord knows where Percy's got to. We neither know nor care. Did you know he's sent us some very horrible letters about Harry?"

"No, what kind of things did they say?"

"Following on from Rita Skeeter's stuff mostly. Seems he's been spreading rumours about him in the Ministry."

Hermione looked outraged. "I can't believe that of Percy. Yes he's an absolute arsehole, but I don't believe he'd do that."

"Believe what you want, he did."

They heard Mrs Weasley cry out in anger in her knitting chair in the kitchen where she had been reading the Daily Prophet. The girls turned and looked at her curiously.

"What's happened mum?"

"What is it Mrs Weasley?"

"It's terrible! Rita Skeeter has been at it again!"

"Who's she written about this time?" Hermione asked slightly angrily.

"Harry, and both of you!"

"What?" The girls dropped the plates and, drying off their hands as they went, rushed over to her. They scanned the front page. There was a big picture of Harry and the heading 'Harry Potter Plays It For Laughs.' with the tagline 'Watch Out Girls, He's Horny As Hell And He's A Predator.'

"This is ridiculous!" Ginny said incredulously.

"We better not let Harry see it." Mrs Weasley said cautiously.

"Let me see what?" Harry said from behind them.

"Harry, you see- Hermione, you do it. I can't." Ginny said as she handed the newspaper to her.

"Harry, according to the news you're the biggest player in town. You've been romantically linked with both of us, both the Patil twins at the same time, and more than half of the female population of Hogwarts. All at the same time."

Harry laughed in disbelief. Hermione handed him the paper and he and Ron examined it. Ron thought it was the funniest thing he had ever seen.

He threw back his head and laughed. "Oh Harry, Malfoy's not going to be pleased with you. You stole his job! He's the player of Hogwarts."

"I got linked with you again?" Harry said to Hermione. "Skeeter really needs to change her tune."

"That's not all my, dears." Mrs Weasley interjected. "Hermione, dear, turn to page three."

Hermione snatched the paper back and did so. She screamed. "How did they get this!?"

Ginny looked over her shoulder. She gasped. "That's my room, and that's us!" she clamped a hand over her mouth. She sat on her mothers lap and cuddled her close.

"I don't believe this. How the hell did they get these pictures!?!!"

"I'll bet you anything it was Percy!" Ginny leapt to her feet looking very angry. "No one else would do this to us!"

"What is it?" Ron asked curiously trying to see the page.

Hermione hid it resolutely. "No! You are not seeing this."

"Girls, can I ask you something? It's not true is it?" Mrs Weasley looked very worried.

Ginny and Hermione shared a look. There was a little pause. "No." Hermione said slowly and a little uncertainly.

"You did?"

"We only experimented a little bit." Ginny said quietly.

Harry and Ron wrestled the paper from Hermione at this point.

Their eyes nearly fell out of their skulls. Together their mouths dropped open when they saw the pictures of Ginny and Hermione in their underwear and dancing together. No wonder they were horrified everyone saw them. There was also a picture of Hermione topless and posing. No wonder she was pissed.

The rest of the family came into the kitchen and stared at the scene in front of them. Hermione and Ginny were trying to get the paper back from the boys while Mrs Weasley looked upset and disappointed with them both.

"Bill, Fleur, someone! Please help us get that paper back!" Ginny pleaded.

Fleur obliged and stalking over to them grabbed it and glanced at it. "Oh, I guess you have seen it, zen? A little shocking is it not, my friends? But do not worry, ze same zing happened to me ven I came here for ze Triwizard Tournament. Except of course, it was in ze French papers. I am verry well known zere."

"It did? How did you respond?" Hermione said as she tore out the page before the others saw it too.

"Vell, ze first zing I did, was this." She took the sheet and crumpled it up. Taking Hermione by the hand she led her over to the kitchen fire. "Be my guest." She held out the creased page to Hermione who grabbed it and threw it into the flames triumphantly. "Ze next zing to do; is write to zem. You write a terrible letter and get zem to, 'ow you say?" she looked at her husband who nodded.

"I think you mean get them to retract the piece and print a formal apology. If you want help, I've had to do this several times; I can tell you what to write. Can I ask what was in it though?" Bill said chewing on a raw steak he had jut taken from the fridge.

Hermione cast a furtive glance at the twins and Charlie, then leant up and whispered what it was in his ear. He suppressed a snort of laughter. "Yeah, we need to do some damage control. Let me draft it out and then you can change it if you need to."

"Thank you." Hermione said gratefully. "How come you turned out so bright? None of your brothers did." Bill laughed and his brothers pouted at her.

"I have no idea. Come on, you need cheering up. Who's for a snowball fight? Girls vs boys." He replied temptingly.

"That's no fair, there's more boys." Ginny said.

"How about Weasley's versus everyone else?"

"Charlie, that's even worse!"

"Yeah, but you get Harry that way."

"We're uneven numbers anyway. Whether we do it young versus old, or something, there are nine of us."

"Ten." A voice said behind them. Arthur Weasley stood there with Luna.

"Luna!" Ginny rushed to hug her.

"Dad went away a day early I'm afraid and left me sitting on the golden fountain in the ministry. I hope you don't mind."

"Of course not Luna. You're always welcome."

"And with you here we can have a five a side snowball fight."

"How are we gonna work it out though? Girls vs boys is six to four. Youth versus us veterans isn't very fair either since we're stronger."

"Girls, we can take 'em. They're only Weasleys."

"Ginny, might I remind you that you are one too?" Ron said as the girls gathered by the fire.

"Exactly, I know all of your weaknesses."

"And I know Harry's and Ron's perfectly. I'm not their best friend for nothing."

"I know Bill's. I also know Harry's from ze Tournament."

"You're turning against me? Honey, need I remind you that you married me recently?"

"Son, get used to it." Arthur told his eldest son who was panicking slightly.

"The odds still aren't very fair." Charlie volunteered.

"Then we get to pick one of you. Now who shall we have, to be a girl?" Hermione said as the girls huddled. "Alright. So who do we want? Come on, we lose this and we've let the female race down."

"Harry?"

"No Luna, his sense of chivalry makes him unable to hit girls very hard. We play to his weaknesses." Hermione looked very serious and it was infectious.

"How 'bout we split the twins up?"

"Ginny, that's brilliant."

"No it isn't." Luna said quietly. "They know each other too well, they can read each others movements and they know what each one would do. Twins are out."

"But zat only leaves Bill, Charlie and Ron."

"Good point. Let's take Ron. He's feeling a bit vindictive towards Harry at the moment. They had a fight. He's not likely to be nice to him."

"Let's just forget it; we can take them without one of them on our side. We have Hermione. She's worth more than Harry, Ron and the twins combined."

"Plus we've got you, Ginny. Just get angry and we'll have won for sure. Luna's arm is really strong, surprisingly so. I don't think the boys realise this. Fleur, I don't know, I don't know you that well."

"Do not worry my friend, I am also good. Remember I am part Veela, and we do not lose zis sort of zing."

"I'll take your word for it. Come on. Let's nail 'em!"

They broke apart and faced the boys. "Watch out boys, you're gonna be beaten by four girls." Hermione said vehemently.

Later……..

"What a pity for you. Hate to say it, but I told you so." Hermione said as she plopped down in front of the fire to warm up after a vicious snowball fight.

"How could we lose to four girls?" Fred fretted as the boys trundled upstairs to change, having been thoroughly beaten by the girls, and were now soaked through.

"We wouldn't have been so badly beaten if Harry wasn't such a hero." Ron grumbled.

"She sounded like she was in trouble." Harry protested.

"They led us into a trap!" Ron wailed.

"You have to admit, it was a good one." George said almost admiringly.

"We can't let them live this down, you know? We have to get them back." Charlie said as he peeled his gloves off.

"Twins this is your territory. Get thinking." Harry ordered. "Just leave Hermione to us."

"Or at least let us have our personal bit first. We have a score to settle with her."

"And I think I know exactly what to do." Harry smirked as evilly as Malfoy and Ron smirked back.

"What will you do?" Bill asked curiously.

"We are going to enchant some mistletoe. We are also going to steal her diary and break the spells on it. Then we have some dirt on her."

"But she's your best friend; don't you already have dirt on her?"

"Nope. She's a closed book, if you'll excuse the terrible Hermione pun."


	3. Chapter 3

The boys were determined to get the girls back and the twins set lots of pitfalls for them and the girls, namely Ginny and Hermione, would retaliate with hexes of their own. What's more they would use Fred and George's own produce against them, much to their aggravation.

Hermione walked into Ron's room a few days after the snowball fight looking severely pleased with herself, for some reason. As she entered the room she saw the two boys sitting on her bed with her diary on the bed between them and they were casting spells to break it open without triggering the mechanism.

"Boys! Give me back my diary!!!" she screeched launching herself at them.

Downstairs everyone else heard Hermione screaming at them and bumps and scrapes that meant furniture was going flying.

"Sounds like they found her diary." Charlie said amused.

"YOU WANT TO PLAY LIKE THAT THEN FINE!! HAVE IT YOUR WAY!!!!" they heard Hermione screech.

"DON'T!! PUT THAT WAND AWAY!!!" Harry shouted.

"I DON'T NEED MY WAND!! I CAN CAUSE JUST AS MUCH PAIN WITHOUT IT! LET ME DEMONSTRATE FOR YOU!!"

There was a pause and then they heard Harry yell out in pain.

"'MIONE, DON'T, NO! ARGH!" Ron joined his friend.

"What do you think she did to them?" Luna asked looking confused.

Everyone shrugged and the next moment Hermione was heard coming down the stairs in a bad mood. She entered the kitchen and they saw the diary in her hands.

"Looks like you won then." Ginny said.

"Yeah, what did you do to them?" Bill asked as though he didn't really want to know.

"You know me, I aim for the weakest spot." She replied vehemently.

As one the boys in the room covered their privates and the girls hid their sniggers.

"Girls, meeting, now." Hermione led them up to Ginny's bedroom. "Ladies, we have to do something about them. The boys aren't going to rest until they've read my diary and learnt all my secrets. Now we need a dummy diary. One that looks exactly like this one, but when they get it open releases a booby trap. And releases the next part of my plan."

"Tell us. You are ze brains in zis group."

"Well, what scares most guys? Or rather, what scares your brothers?"

"Too much affection."

"And it's Christmas. What comes out at Christmas?"

"Mistletoe! Hermione you are a genius."

"I am rather, because we are not only going to put mistletoe up in the most populated places in this house, we are going to enchant it. A sprig above every boy's head, and if they try and remove it by magic, they will get a shock."

"What kind of shock?"

"Now that I will keep secret. Okay Luna and I will flirt with them all. You don't mind do you Fleur, Bill is included in this."

"Of courrse not, I know it is not meant. But what will Ginnie and I do?"

"Fleur, could you flirt with the boys too. Not too much, we don't want Bill to go nuts, but just enough so that it is detected. Ginny, flirt with Harry. As much as I hate that idea, you've got to be part of this."

"You fancy Harry don't you?"

"Am I that obvious?"

The other girls exchanged looks. "Yep!" they said together.

"Damn." Hermione said casually. "I guess we both fell for the knight in shining armour, Gin."

"Yeah, I guess we did."

"Lets hope he's not what most of them were."

"What's that, Mione?"

"A loser in aluminium foil. Don't look at me like that, girls, it's true, and I think he may be, underneath it all." The girls laughed at the summation of the knights of yore.

"What? The Golden Boy Hero?" Luna laughed.

"Have you ever seen him try and talk to girls? He's hopeless! WAIT! Idea! Is it possible to send jinxes by post?" Hermione laughed and then sobered.

"Could be possible. Why? What are you thinking?"

"Just a little payback for Malfoy. And some entertainment for the people left at school."

"What?"

"Did you ever see Monty Python and the Holy Grail? The whole knights thing gave me an idea."

"Suits of armour? Might be a better idea when we're all there. Valentines Day or something."

There was a lull in the conversation as Hermione thought about this.

"Girrls, I zink Madame Weasley is having a parrty on Christmas Eve, is it?"

"Yes, I believe she is. Why do you ask?"

"May we go shopping? I need a new drress. And I believe you all do too. I vill pay." Fleur purred in her lilting French accent.

"I need to get another diary to match this one."

They left the room and sauntered downstairs again to ask permission to leave.

Twenty minutes later they were dusting themselves off in the Leaky Cauldron and Tom the innkeeper was smiling and bowing to them as they passed through. They made their way out of the pub and blinking stepped into the brightness of the bustling Diagon Alley. Luna dropped a comment in about why she thought Tom kept his pub so dark.

They went to Madam Malkin's Robe shop and had fun picking outfits for the Christmas Eve bash. Since Arthur Weasley's ascension to Minister the party was bound to be a big deal. It was also a perfect opportunity for sabotage on the boys in their lives. Ginny purchased a camera and magical developing potion while Hermione went off to find the diary.

They sat and had lunch in the Leaky Cauldron and Hermione made the new diary look exactly like hers, but adding a triumphant letter for when the boys managed to read this one. They all commented on what to say and then had some fun writing some jokey entries for the pages before it. Once these were done they put the booby traps in it and included all the funniest hexes they could think of. They made sure that the hex that punished readers other than Hermione was in place but not to hard too crack; they didn't want the boys to give up before the booby traps went off.

Those boys were in for a big surprise when they read that diary.


	4. Chapter 4

Hermione made a show of writing in her diary that night and when she went to brush her teeth Harry and Ron nicked it from the bed.

"Alohomora!" Ron shouted, whacking the diary with his wand. "Worth a shot." He said in answer to Harry's questioning look.

"This is Hermione's, so we need to get into her mindset. What spells would she put on it?"

"Quick! She's coming back. We'll do it tomorrow. Hide it!"

When Hermione came in they were acting casual and innocent which she saw through immediately.

"What's going on?" she said suspiciously.

"Nothing. So anyway Ron, why do you keep supporting a quidditch team which hasn't even got onto the league tables in years?" Harry said casually changing the subject.

Hermione snorted as she saw the diary poking out from under Ron's pillow. She casually took out the dress in it's plastic wrap and hung it up.

"What's that 'Mione?"

"It's my dress for the Christmas party, Ron. Fleur bought it for me. Do you like it?" she took it out of the wrapper and held it up to herself.

"You hoping to impress someone there?" Ron asked with a significant look at Harry.

"Well, yes actually."

"Who?"

"All in good time boys. All in good time." she replied flirtatiously.

"Come on! We've been trying to guess who your crush is for weeks!" Ron wailed.

Hermione laughed. "Who says I have one?" and hung the dress up again.

"You did!" Harry moaned. "You just said you were trying to impress someone."

"That's right I did, didn't I?"

"Why must you be so annoying?!" Ron looked ready to hit her.

"Because I'm good at it." she replied coolly.

Mrs Weasley called them down for dinner and Hermione flounced out of the room.

Harry turned to Ron. "I don't understand women!"

"Nor do I, but they seem to understand us."

"So, are we back to the old Hermione standby?"

"Yup. Hang on, which one?" Ron showed his usual bewilderment.

"Grin and bear it. Don't annoy her."

"Do we have to?" Ron moaned like a six year old. Well he does have the mental capacity of one.

Harry looked at him. "No. We get even. She won't tell us, we have her diary. Enough said." He pulled out the diary and they started trying to break it open again.

Downstairs everyone was getting tired of waiting for the boys.

"Let me. I'll get them down." Hermione grinned and pointed her wand at the ceiling. A red dart shot out and went through the ceiling.

"OW!!"

"What was that?" they heard Harry ask.

"Guess." Ron said sounding very pissed off.

"HERMIONE!!!" they both shouted.

Everyone in the kitchen sniggered.

"Hermione you are good." Luna said admiringly.

"I know."

"Why do you like hurting your best friends so much?" Charlie asked curiously.

"Why do they like hurting me?"

"We don't do it on purpose." Turning they saw Harry and Ron in the doorframe.

"Yeah, I think we all know what big idiots you both are."

"Ohh, burn!" Ginny said laughing.

"Boys can we have a meeting afterwards, we need Bill's help. Curse breaking isn't exactly our line. Creating them is."

"This should be good." Ginny murmured to Luna as they went to sit down. "All of them together. They'll all get it." the pair snickered as they sat down.

As Hermione sat down in her place there was the sound of a monstrous fart. "A whoopee cushion? Come on, boys, what are you, three?" she pulled it out from under her and sent it whizzing across the table to where Ron was sitting opposite her. "I believe this belongs to you."

"But we didn't even do this one! This is the twins!"

"In that case." Hermione drew her wand.

"Hermione dear, no. Not at dinner. You can punish them afterwards." Mr Weasley said.

"Trust me it's already done." She replied smirking at the boys. They all looked very worried and Hermione smiled at the girls who returned it. "You boys are in for a surprise. And you don't know when it will be, which makes it so much more fun for me and my girls."

"Maybe we shouldn't try and get that diary open. Something bad might happen." Ron hissed to Harry.

"That's what she wants us to think."

"No Harry, what I want you to think is in that diary you are attempting to open." Hermione said loudly.

Harry and Ron paled at being caught out. Hermione laughed at them.

"You fools; I've known all along that you would try to crack open my diary and I know you want to know my secrets, and being one of your best friends I guess I should have told you. I don't keep many. And Ron, just so you know, alohomora won't work. But you already know that don't you?"

"How does she do that?" Ron asked the table at large.

"In what world could either of you ever beat me?" Hermione asked them coolly.

"You've got a lot more arrogant haven't you? That's something Malfoy would say."

"Funny you should mention me." Before their eyes Hermione turned into Draco Malfoy. "Surprise, surprise!"

The shock rippled around the table. Ginny hid her sniggers badly, but no one noticed.

"Malfoy? What are you doing here?" Harry said drawing his wand and pointing it at his enemy.

There was a pause. Then Malfoy laughed and the other girls laughed with him.

"I'm not Malfoy!" Hermione laughed and let the illusion spell lapse. "You guys are so easy!"

"Hermione!"

She kept laughing. "Draco actually taught me the spell and we use it all the time. It's less painful than polyjuice potion, you see. We switch places all the time."

"But, why? You hate each other." Ron stated.

"Not really. We only act like we do to hide the other stuff. Okay, I suppose I should explain myself. One of my secrets involves Draco. He's…my ex-boyfriend."

"WHAT??!!!!" everyone on the table shouted. Hermione went out with MALFOY!?

"I knew you'd react this way. We were dating for two years. He's very different when you really get to know him, not at all like he appears. He's a proper gentleman."

"But, he hates muggles and muggle-borns." Arthur Weasley said in disbelief.

"No he doesn't. He used to and he reckons I can do magic too well to be purely muggle-born. So we did some research. Apparently I am a descendant of Rowena Ravenclaw. We had lots of fun together, before Ron ruined it."

"Huh?"

"Yeah you did. Unconsciously you did. You never found out about us, but you nearly did. That was the problem; we both knew that none of you would ever speak to me again if you knew I was dating Draco Malfoy. And Ron was blundering his way closer to the truth. Thank god for this illusion spell. It's got us out of several tight spots. He taught me a lot of spells, several of which I will have to teach you Molly. They should come in handy for someone with as many kids as you do."

"Thank you dear."

"Can I ask, how long ago did you break up with him?" Harry asked a little gently.

"End of the last school year."

"That soon?"

"I thought it was years ago?"

"It kinda was. It was on and off for about three years. Altogether the time was about two years solid. But it's all in the past now. Although I do miss him we have both moved on."

"You kept it hidden really well."

"I know how to act. Also, it was such an unlikely pairing that it worked, somehow. You never suspected anything was going on so it was easy to conceal. You know what, I don't think you'll have any trouble breaking it open. Just ask Bill for help." Hermione rose and left the table and went to sit outside, forgetting her coat.

Harry got up and took both his and her coats and followed her. He found her on a bench staring up at the swirling snow.

"'Mione? Here's your coat. Mind if I join you?" he said gently handing her the coat.

"Sure." She said quietly taking the coat and slipping it on. "I don't know why I had to tell you all about Draco."

"I think I do. You've obviously been hiding it for a long time, three years by the sounds of it. And I can tell it still hurts. And you've had no one to talk to about it. Did anyone know?"

"No. Not a soul."

"Keeping something like that hidden would make it hurt more. You should have told us."

"Harry, I couldn't. Not with your history with Draco. You've not liked each other since the day you met. Well, he admires you for who you are but his pride won't let him show it."

"I understand why you wouldn't tell, but I don't see why you have to keep secrets from me and Ron. Don't you trust us?"

"Of course I do, I trust you with my life. It's just not easy being the only girl in the trio. Apart from Ginny I have no one to gossip with and I can't have sleepovers or anything."

"We've neglected you haven't we? And we really shouldn't. You help us with everything we need, especially schoolwork. You feel underappreciated don't you?"

"That's why Draco was so different. He appreciated me and made me feel like a princess. As much as I love you and Ron, I needed that assurance. It took Ron four years to realise I was a girl. I'm not likely to confide in him. Although I do occasionally, mostly when he's got me drunk."

"How did I manage to miss those nights?"

"You were off being a hero. Again."

"So why can't you confide in me?"

"I do Harry, sometimes."

"Tell me something now. A secret you've been hiding. Look, I'm going to find out anyway, we stole your diary and we will break into it."

Hermione laughed lightly. "It needs a password. Something very personal to me. You want a secret? Alright, one of the reasons Draco and I split is because there is someone else. Someone else for me."

"I knew it. Tell me who." Harry said eagerly.

"It was you Harry."

"Me?"

"Yup. The one and only Harry Potter. I guess I fell for the knight in shining armour. I really couldn't help it. There's something about you that draws me to you."

"Thank you for telling me."

"Wait, that's it? Do you return my feelings?"

"Yes I do. Call me a fool but I've fallen for you."

Harry smiled at Hermione who beamed back. "I never thought you would. So where does this leave us?"

"You tell me. We can't go back to being just friends, now that it's out."

"Hey Harry, wanna go out sometime?"

"Sure, why not?"


End file.
